Machine for making spools from fibrous pulp



2 Sheets-Sheet 1,

(No Model.)

E HUBBARD MAGHINE FOR MAKING sPooLs FROM PIBROUS PULP. No. 499,427.

(N0 Model 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

E.-HUBBARD. 'MAQHINB FOR MAKING SPOOLS PROM PIBROUS PULP.

No. 499,427. Patented June 13, 1893..

THE "cums PEYERS ed. PNOTD-LITNO. WASHINGYON, u c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EBER HUBBARD, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE VVILLIMANTIC LINEN COMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

MACHINE FOR MAKING SPOOLS FROM FIBROUS PULP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 499,427, dated June 13, 1893.

Application filed June 6. 1892- $erial No. 435,622. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EBER HUBBARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Machine for Making Spools'fromFibrous Pulp, which are fully set forth in the following specification, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

This invention is designed to afford improved means for making of fibrous pulp, by molding and pressing, spools or bobbins, particularly of the large sizes which are used for winding heavy cords and tapes, and thread suitable for manufacturing purposes, and which are required to be very accurately formed in order to operate properly in connection with the machinery by which they are wound, or in which they are used.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical section taken axially through the machine or press in which I mold and press the spool, showing the parts in the position occupied when the spool is abouthalf compressed. Fig. 2 is a similar sectional side elevation,looking in a direction at right angles to the view in Fig. 1, section being made through the base and cap of the frame, and through atapering hood which is rigid with the frame in a plane at right angles to the plane of the section in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a section at the plane indicated by the line 33 on Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a top plan of a top cap plate of the mold. Fig. 5 is a detail elevation of a modification of the mold-compressing hood. Fig. 6 is a perspective of one half-section of the mold. Fig. 7 is a detail section at the line 77 on Fig. 1.

This machine comprises a several part mold adapted to be filled with the liquid pulp and to be closed up to compress the same and expel the water therefrom, and when closed up, having its cavity in the form of the desired spool or bobbin, which may be removed therefrom upon opening the mold. It comprises, therefore, a frame in which the parts constituting the mold are supported, and which is calculated to withstand the strain resulting from the pressure necessary to properly compact the pulp in the mold. A is the base of this frame. B is the top plate. C C C C are tie-rods which secure the base and cap in proper fixed relation to each other, and said rods are of a size necessary to afford the proper tensile resistance exerted in compressing the spool.

D is a tablet or stool, which has the tubular stem D extending down through the base A, wherein it obtains slide bearing of sufficient length to insure accuracy in the movement of the tablet. I have designed that this tablet should be forced upward by hydraulic pressure, and in the drawings, the base A is represented as having at its center, and constituting the slide-bearing of the stem D, a cylinder A, shown as broken away below the base, wherein the hydraulic pressure might be exerted against the closed lower end of the stem D. ButI do not limit myself to operating the device by hydraulic pressure, and any means for exerting upward pressure against the stem D may be employed. The tablet D has a hub D onto which the stern D is screwed, and has a central circular aperture D extending through the hub, and of the diameter of the head or flange of the spool to be formed in the mold. The length of the hub, and consequent length of the cylindrical aperture D through it, is such as to afford guidance and bearing surface for a piston or follower E, which fits and is adapted to play axially therein, and serves a purpose hereinafter set forth.

To the tablet D, there are rigidly secured, upon its upper surface and projecting upwardly from it, two cheeks F F, whose corresponding lines, as they stand facing each other, are parallel, said cheeks being placed at equal distances on opposite sides of the axial line of the tablet and its cylindrical aperture D and being shaped on their facing surfaces conformed to the outline of an axial section through the spool to be formed, so that a vertical section at right angles to the plane of said parallel lines of the two cheeks, taken at any point in the length of the cheeks, would disclose the outline of an axial section of the spool. These cheeks are secured to the tablet D by exteriorly projecting flanges f f.

To the upper ends of the checks, which are provided with similar flanges f, there is secured the cap G, which has the central hub G, provided with the central aperture G lie which is of the same diameter as the aperture D in the tablet D, and is fitted with a piston II for a similar purpose.

J J are two equal and identically similar parts of a mold with open ends, whose interior cavity is conformed to the exterior shape of the spool to be produced, theparting plane between the two halves being axial with respect to the form of the spool. Each of these half-molds J J has a rib or flange J extending outward from it in a plane at right angles to the parting plane, and said flange has its outer edge inclined to the spool axis, and provided with a heavy bead J These two halfmolds are adapted to be entered between the parallel cheeks F F. \Vhen thus entered between the cheeks, their edges at the parting plane coincide with the cheeks, and the planes of the cheeks are tangent to the inner surfaces of the half molds J, so that their edges at the parting plane are substantially knife edges. The structure need not be so precise as thus described, but the diameter of the mold cavity should be very little exceeded by the distance between the cheeks, so that the edges of the half-molds, contacting exteriorly parallel surfaces of the cheeks, may be very thin, if not actually reduced to knife edges.

K is a tapering hood, which is secured at its smaller end to the top plate B of the frame, and is coaxial with the tablet D and parts already described thereon. The angle of slope of this hood corresponds to the angle of inclination of the beaded edges of the flanges J of the half-molds J, so that when the tablet is advanced axially upward toward the hood, the two parts of the mold, being in position between the cheeks of the tablet, the beaded edges of said flanges contact the sloping inner surfaces of the hood and coincide therewith, and the continued upward movement of the tablet, carrying the molds thereon up into the hood, causes the two half molds J J to be forced toward each other until, eventually, their edges meet, and the mold is thus laterally closed up. hen the mold is thus closed up, the openings at the upper and lower ends thereof will coincide respectively with the apertures D and G in the tablet and top cap. The piston E,which plays in the aperture D has a central aperture 6 through the hub E which protrudes downward from the head of the piston within its tubular ex tension, which is practically its stem, and onto the hub there is stretched the piece of rubber tubing E, whose normalinner diameter is somewhat less than that of the aperture 6 and the said piece of tubing extends below the hub a suflicient distance to retain at its lower end its normal dimensions. This aperture 2 and the rubber tubing which constitutes an extension of it below the hub, are adapted to receive the spindle or rod L, which is of the size of the axial aperture designed to be formed in the spool, and such rod will be inserted down through the hub, and far enough to be held by the contractile force of i the rub- N is a cross-head or bar, having, at themiddle of its length a hub interiorly threaded to receive the threaded end of the stem H, the stem being provided with acrank handle H or other means for rotatingitabove the crosshead or bar N.

O is a bar, which extends through diametrically opposite apertures d in the tubular stem D of the tablet D.

P Pare links or latch bars connected to the opposite ends of the cross-head N, and adapted at their lower ends to hook onto the ends respectively of the cross bar 0, and thereby to connect positively the cross-head Nand the bar 0, so that they move in either direction, up or down. The apertures at through which the bar passes, are elongated vertically a short distance for a purpose which will hereinafter appear. The heads of both the pistons E and H are perforated to permit the water to drain or be forced out. That which is forced out through the lower piston E will be easily disposed of at some convenient point in the length of the tubular stem D, and that which is forced out through the upper piston II is received in the cavity h thereof, and preferably exhausted therefrom through the suction pipe S.

The mode of operating this device for the purpose of manufacturing the spools is as follows:The tablet D, being located in the po-,

sition shown in Fig. 2, the half moldsJJ, are separated laterally at equal distances from the vertical axis of the machine, but not so far but that the upper ends of the slant edges or flanges J of the half molds are within the lateral compass of the lower mouth of the hood K. In order that this position may be assumed, the latch bars or links P will be disengaged from the cross bar 0, and the latter will rest at the bottom of the elongated apertures d in the tubular stem D of the tablet. The lower end of the stem E of the piston E is notched, and rests on the cross-bar which enters the notches, and when said bar is at the lower end of the slot d, and the said piston stein E is lodged thereon, as shown in Fig. 1, the upper face of the piston head is below the plane of the top surface of the tablet a short distance. The cross-head N is resting with its hub upon the corresponding hub at the center of the top plate B, and the stem H of the upper piston H is screwed through the cross-head only so far as to bring the piston-head at such position that when the tablet shall have been advanced upward into the hood so far that further advance will forcibly compress the pulp in the mold, said upper piston valve will enter the aperture provided for it in the cap G, as nearly to the plane of the lower face of the cap as the piston E stands to the upper face of the tablet. When the parts occupy this position, a spindle L is placed in position, as shown in Fig. 1, being inserted down through the aperture 6 in the lower piston far enough to enter the rubber tubing and be held thereby. Liquid pulp will now be poured into the -mold through the aperture in the top cap G until the same is filled and the pulp stands in the aperture of the cap as high, at least, as the point to which the piston will have entered by-the time the mold is laterally closed, and it may be found desirable to fill the cap to the top. This depends upon how rapidly the water drains from the pulp-during the process of filling, and before actual compression by force is commenced, the purpose being to get substantially an equal quantity of fibrous matter in each end of the spool, so that when compressed, the two flanges will be of equal density. The tablet, being now advanced up to-- ward and into the hood until the latch bars P engage the cross-bar 0, without the application of more force than necessary to lift the parts, the half molds will be more or less closed up laterally, the extent of such action being dependent upon the extent to which they were separated before filling commenced, but presumably, the pulp will be still in so liquid a condition that the lateral approach of the two half-molds, up to this point, will not more than compensate for the natural drainage of the water, and that, when the parts are in the position in which they appear in Fig. 1, with the cross-head N and the bar 0 latched together by the latch bars P, the mold will be full up to the face of the upper piston,and the contents will not have been subjected to any appreciable pressure, but will be substantially beyond the point of further shrinkage by mere drainage. The force being new applied to further advance the tablet upward and carry the mold into the hood, the water will be forced out from the pulp, and the latter compressed by the lateral approach of the two half-molds as they advance into the tapering hood. In this action, the cross-bar O is carried upward with the tablet, and by means of the latch bars P, carries upward at the same time the cross head N, the latter carrying with it the piston H,so that neither of the pistons E or H, is moved inward, but said pistons remain at fixed distance from each other and fixed relation to the tablet D and cap G respectively. The lateral compression of the pulp by the approach of the two half molds will condense the pulp at different points in the length of the spool in proportion to the diminution in horizontal extent of the mold cavity at the several points of the length, so that the flanges of the spool or will not be so much condensed as the shaft body, because the proportionate reduction is less. For example, if the diameter of the shaft of the spool, when fully completed, is to be two inches, and the diameter of the flanges five inches, and the approach of the two half-molds in compressing the pulp, amounts in all to five inches, the body or shaft will be condensed to a degree indicated by the ratio of seven to two, while the flanges will be condensed to a degree indicated by the ratio of ten to five. This will result in leaving the flanges less dense than the shaft, and to compensate for this deficiency in density of the flanges is the purpose of providing a further cavity for the pulp inthe cylindrical central apertures in the tablet D and cap G, in which the pistons E and H respectively play. When the upward movement of the tablet has so far advanced the mold into the hood that the two half-molds J J meet at their edges and the lateral compression is thereby completed, or, if preferred, while the latter portion of this process is being performed,the handle H being rotated, the stem H, screwed down through the cross-head N, forces the piston H toward the piston E, and the resistance of the pulp to each piston being substantially the same, the two pistons will advance equally into their respective seats in the cap G and tablet D, and the pulp which was in the cylindrical apertures in which the pistons play above and below respectively the planes of the under face of the cap and the upper face of the tablet, is forced into the head or flange of the spool. Assuming that the quantity of pulp left subject to the action of the pistons is that which is necessary to compensate for the lack of density of the flanges, the spool is now substantially uniform in density throughout, and the process of compressing it is completed, and the tablet, being allowed to descend, carrying the mold out of the hood, the two half-molds being then separated laterally, the spool may be lifted through the aperture in the cap G by means of the spindle L, which will remain in it and serve as a means of handling and supporting it while it is being properly dried and hardened by processes which form no part of this-invention. The elongation of the apertures d in the stem D of the tablet is sufficient only to permit 7 two cheeks F F fixed thereon, having theirfacing surfaces parallel and vertically conformed to the longitudinal outline of the spool and=separated by the distanceof a diametric section of the spool; the two-part mold between said cheeks, whose cavity has the form of the spool, the edges of the two parts at the parting plane coinciding with the surfaces of the cheeks respectively, and the two parts being adapted to slide toward and from each other between said cheeks; and a cap or top plate whose downwardly facing surface is parallel to the top surface of the tablet, and which is secured to the upper ends of the cheeks, and suitable means for forcing the two parts of the mold together between the cheeks: substantially as set forth.

2. In combination,substantiallyasset forth, the tapering hood K, and the tablet D, relatively movable in the direction of the axis of the hood; cheeks F F fixed with respect to the tablet having their facing surfaces parallel and conformed in a plane transverse to their parallel lines to the longitudinal outline of the spool, and separated by the space of a diametric section of the spool; and a two-part mold whose cavity corresponds to the shape of the spool, the edges of the two-parts at the parting plane coinciding with the parallel surfaces of the cheeks respectively and adapted to slide toward each other between said parallel cheeks, and provided respectively with ribs or flanges projecting in a plane at right angles to the parting plane and having inclined end edges adapted to enter the tapering hood as the tablet and hood approach.

3. In combination with the tablet, a mold supported thereon composed of more than one part and whose cavity conforms to the shape of the spool to be produced therein; the upstanding cheeks rigid with the tablet having facing surfaces parallel and conformed respectively to the outline of a radial section of the spool, between which checks the parts of the mold respectively slide in directions radial with respect to the mold cavity; a top plate or cap secured to the upper ends of the upstanding guides, said tablet and cap plate having coaxial apertures conformed to the end outline of the spool; pistons located and adapted to play axially in said apertures respectively; and suitable means for forcing the parts of the mold together between their respective guiding cheeks, and means for forcing the pistons axially toward the planes of the facing surfaces of the tablet and cap respectively: substantially as set forth.

4. In combination with the tablet, a mold supported thereon composed of more than one part and whose cavity conforms to the shape of the spool to be produced therein; the upstanding cheeks rigid with the tablet having facing surfaces parallel and conformed respectively to the outline of a radial section of the spool, between which cheeks the parts of the mold respectively slide in directions radial with respect to the mold cavity; a top plate or cap secured to the upper ends of the upstanding guides, said tablet and cap plate having coaxial apertures conformed to the end outline of the spool; pistons located and adapted to play axially in said apertures respectively; said mold parts having each a rib or flange radial with respect to the mold cavity; said ribs having their outer edges equally and similarly oblique to the axis of the mold cavity; whereby the lines of said ohlique edges, produced, converge toward said axis; a tapering hood coaxial with the mold cavity, said hood and tablet being supported byacommon frame; and means for moving the one relatively toward the other in the direction of the axis; whereby said ribsenter the tapering hood and cause the mold to be closed up by such axial movement; and suitable means for forcing the pistons toward each other: substantially as set forth.

5. 'In combination with the frame having the top and bottom plates rigidly united, the tablet and the hood coaxial, and supported in the frame and relatively movable in the direction of their common axis; the guiding cheeks rigid with the tablet and the top cap rigid with the cheeks; and the mold whose sections are guided between the checks toward the axis and having the oblique-edged ribs which enter and are operated upon by the tapering hood; the tablet and cap having coaxial apertures, the pistons in said apertures, and a frame consisting of a cross-bar below the tablet and a cross-head above the frame, and sidebars or links which connect them positively; the lower piston being stopped against the lower cross-bar and the upper piston having a stem sliding through the top of the frame and threaded through the cross-head and provided with means for screwing it up and down through the same: substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two witnesses, at Chicago, Illinois, this 2d day of June, 1892.

EBER HUBBARD.

Witnesses:

CHAS. S. BURTON, J EAN ELLIOTT.

ICC 

